Denise O'Reilly & The Dressage Secret

14/04/2026

Join Denise O’Reilly with The Rider Effect Clinics – running every Wednesday!
✨ Discover how you influence your horse
✨ Improve balance, straightness & contact
✨ Learn simple changes that create powerful results
Whether you're working on crookedness, softness, or overall connection, these sessions are designed to help you unlock a whole new level in your riding.
🐎 Open to all horses & riders
🏇 Bring your own horse or ride one of ours
🏠 Held in our beautiful indoor arena
💥 Special Intro Prices:
• £39 (own horse)
• £59 (school horse)
• +£8 for a schoolmaster
⏱ 40-minute session that could change everything

09/02/2026

Coaching towards competition goals gives me a real buzz! And these two completely smashed it this weekend!

08/02/2026

Great weekend's coaching - before I completely lost my voice!
Still can only just squeak, but as I can type (!) I thought I would share a little snippet of Danni Nicholson-Round and her beautiful boy, Luka, getting to grips with some half- passes. As always, the line is priority, then the bend, then the movement itself.
Ask for a little, praise rather alot!

08/02/2026

I want to give a big shout out to two very special riders, who at this weekend's Area Festival have made me very proud to be involved in their journeys.
Clare Atkins for doing a cracking job in Elementary silver, with her amazing Welsh Cob, Rocky, and Gracie Stanbrook, who at only 14 years old, produced some very smart and mature riding on two very different horses, at Prelim, Novice and Elementary.
Great scores, lots achieved, and some great placings.
Love teaching these guys!

04/01/2026

Hi all, and Happy New Year from myself, Coco, Diesel and Thomas.
I thought I would kick us off for 2026 with some interesting stuff around words, and the language that we use in coaching riding.
Probably we would all agree that all of the traditional phrases used in many lessons has stood us in (reasonably) good stead.
I bet we have all been saved from a fall by shouts of 'sit up and push your heels down' (sorry if that triggered anyone!)
Whilst the well known (well worn?) phrases form large parts of many lessons up and down the country, and are undoubtedly true....they may not be the whole truth, or indeed contain enough detail to really get you, the rider, to feel or do, what your coach intended.
I recently discussed this with my very clever saddle fitter lady, Amy Downing from Jeremy Rudge Saddles as we talked about lessons, and she reminded me that the NLP guys would say that the spoken word is all about the interpretation of those words by the recipient, not the intent by the coach.
Lost in translation can, and does happen, English to English - and that is before we start to factor in the horse and their interpretation (of what you think you asked for, when YOU interpreted what you think your coach asked for!!)
We were talking about it as I teach a number of what we could call 'Left Brain Dominant' people.
The 3 students that immediately spring to mind are all powerful women who have been in top positions in various companies.
Their left brain (logic, facts and figures) would definitely have helped them in the board room - but riding, especially riding in a flow state, is another matter.
(In fact, left or right side dominance is a bit of an over-simplification to say the least, but it does give us some useful tools).
Let me explain one characteristic that is associated with those people who have a strong sense of logic (or we could call them 'left brained' for ease!)
That is that they have very lengthy 'internal dialogue' compared to people who are more 'right brained' who have shorter, quicker instructions to themselves whilst riding.
Short, quick instructions to yourself are much more likely to allow you to be 'in the moment' and to notice more detail or feedback from the horse - essentially we are addressing the ability to 'feel'.
And yes, it can be taught!
This came up in a lesson with one of my 'Power Three' when we figured out that rather than quick fire instructions to herself, she was virtually reciting a whole instruction manual - by which time the 'moment' had well and truly gone.
Let's take an example of riding a corner - in the short, quick fire way, my instruction to myself might be something like - ''prep'', (shorthand for a well rehearsed feeling in my body which would include obvious things like the half- halt before, and less obvious things like putting a bit more weight down my inside thigh). And maybe ''go'' coming out of the corner, (which would be my shorthand for engage the inside hindleg and keep the rhythm) - maybe ''on the line'' too (shorthand for keep the shoulders of the horse straighter on the outside so the bend is correct).
My student who I was helping to get more 'feel' and be 'more in the moment' would definitely have had the longhand version - with side notes!
We even figured out that her words came from a certain place in her head (getting weird now, I know, but hang in there..) - guess what? Left Front!
Next we had to get the shorthand words that gave her the exact right feeling - and these needed to be super-quick commands.
They were very personal to her - my words are next to useless for her - as they trigger good responses in ME.
We needed HER words.
My 'on the line' words I love for corners- but for her it needed to be 'RIDE the line' and these words produced all the difference in the world.
We came to this by using an image which got her to visualise the television course walk round Badminton (or similar) where a red arrow makes it way over the exact centre of the jumps.
Next, (back to the weird bit again) I asked to get her words to come from the back of her head and more to the right.
RESULT!
The finish of the lesson was my 5 second rule - any one thought can be focused on for only 5 seconds, and then you have to move to the next - and do that for 5 seconds.
My student needed also to manage the energy of her horse coming out of the corner - and she liked the word 'energise' - so that became her word.
As her coach I got to remind her in shorthand - but even better results were gained when I got HER to say them to ME as she thought them.
The 5 second rule helps you to 'spin all the plates in current play' (or juggle all the balls in play) so that you don't go off into longhand and drop one by not paying the right attention at the right time.
Hope you all have fun playing with these techniques!
They can be a total game changer.
If it is easy for you to do, try doing it in a test - you will absolutely ace it!
So similar, yet so different.

02/01/2026

Getting to ride, making time for my horses first.
And enjoying the crisp cold sunshine!

22/12/2025

So a little update on Wendy's progress with lengthening her leg in order to find the 'sit deep' feeling.
We have added a couple of new ideas to the core lesson we did the other day.
Wendy has found this new stetch a bit physically challenging, with a bit of soreness in the shins, which is gradually easing as the days pass.
The really lovely thing is the effect of this muscular stretch in Timone's work.
His back has begun to lift, and he is seeking the contact foward.
Next we will add a little more power to find the real swing in the back, so that the transitions begin to work their magic!
Hope you enjoy following Wendy's progress!

16/12/2025

SIT DEEP? HELP! HOW?
Hi all - oh dear, I'm afraid my efforts at uploading all the clips are a bit rustic! Can you bear with me while I get a bit more techie with it all?
I hope so!
These should be in the right order - but just in case, here is the gist
Let's start by explaining that 'sit deep' as an instruction is probably not detailed enough for some of us to understand what exactly we should do.
If you asked 10 people to separately write down what it means and how they would achieve it, I would like to bet that there would be 10 different answers.
Whilst people may think it is to do with pushing down in the stirrups, or sitting heavier, I think it's fair to say that there is some confusion to say the least!
I do think however, that most of us would recognise the look of a rider getting it right!
So, it has to do mainly with 2 aspects of how we sit - number one, how we get the thigh muscle to actively 'pull down the bone' and number two, how we flatten out our sitting surface - you will hear me use an image here of thinking of your 'underneath' like a handkerchief - with 4 corners that pull as far away as possible from each other. In effect, we are stretching out the pelvic floor in order to 'settle it further down onto the horse'.
Enjoy the video, please leave comments and questions, and I hope it's helpful.

13/12/2025

Shout out to my newest followers! Welcome, Val Jones, & Phoebe Glover

13/12/2025

06/12/2025

SO - WHAT IS 'THE DRESSAGE SECRET?'
Hi everyone, how is everyone doing with the mud / damp / early nightfalls etc?
Not fun is it? Hope you are all managing to ride though still.
As I haven't posted for a while, I thought I would write something for you to read whilst it's raining!
How many of you out there know why I named my coaching 'The Dressage Secret'?
I thought I should fill in those of you who don't know - I am aware that generally, I am not good at spouting about myself and what I do! When I was younger my Mother would have called that 'showy behaviour' and I would have got a thick ear probably!
The Dressage Secret became my chosen name for what I do purely because of my adult journey into riding.
Apart from a couple of sits on a schoolfriend's pony, I didn't start riding until I was 21.
I learned originally at a farm that did large group hacks - I didn't even realise that adults could go to a riding school; I was totally clueless!
But once I found lessons, then I was really hooked. Not just to horses, but to the learning, and to the dream that I could actually work at this and get better - what a buzz!
However, as much as I loved my lessons, I was often a bit baffled by the things that got said...
Some examples that flumoxed me were things like ''use your seat'',
''sit deep'', or ''bend the horse round your inside leg''.
I felt like I had gone to sleep and woken up in a foreign land that spoke a language I couldn't speak or understand. (Anyone else??)
Now, because I was not a child, and not very good at just doing as I was told without question, I had to just ask for a little bit more information on HOW I should do these things.
That didn't always go down very well (''why is that woman always so difficult to teach?'') or sometimes it just got me more platitudes (''you just need to practice more until you've got it'')
Well, ok. But practice what exactly? How will I know what it should feel like, or how to change what I am doing now?
I began to feel a little frustrated, so I set out to learn more about the mysteries of riding better.
By this point (about 2 years into my riding journey) I had heard that they held dressage competitions at Field House, Marchington, where I had been having lessons, so I went along to watch.
Six hours later, I hadn't moved - I was completely transfixed, and 'riding passion' just went to a whole new level.
In the months (and years) that followed I went to every competition I could.
I could see that phrases such as ''sit deep'' did indeed apply to most of the riders I saw - and those who didn't look that way, I could see their struggles - and identify with them.
Now, seeing it, and knowing how to get there, are two very different things.
On a clear day, I can see the Welsh borders from the top of the hill, but that doesn't tell me which road to get on to go there!
From my studies / observations, I learned that no two people sit the same way...even those who all looked brilliant to me had differences between them.
I felt very much as if these good riders had figured out a Secret - one that I didn't yet know.
(I bet you are all getting it now!)
At about this time, my curiosity about all this led to a chance meeting with one of the world's top authorities on the 'how' of riding.
My first lesson with Mary Wanless BHSI BSc was a total revelation, and I began to understand so much more depth to my learning.
I NEEDED this depth of explanation, because I had very little knowledge and even less riding talent.
Over the years, I built on these early clinics, attending my first Teacher Training Course with Mary about 2 years later.
The following year I did both the Basic and the Advanced Teacher training, taught my first Grand Prix rider, and learned that I did actually have my own 'super-power'.
Sadly, it was never to be my riding (although my feel is pretty good these days) - it was, in fact, my EYE.
Very quickly this led me to see (and then be able to coach) my own details about the 'how' of what I was seeing.
Also about this time I had two revolutionary lessons on dressage schoolmasters - one a successful PSG horse, and the other a little Grand Prix Iberian - on whom I couldn't get out of piaffe (turns out more leg isn't always the answer!) 😂
Me and my 'Magic Eye' got pretty good at seeing and coaching fixes to well ingrained problems in riders of all levels - from Beginners to International Grand Prix riders who knew they were missing something in that one pirouette, or line of ones.
Through this work, I travelled extensively, coaching in Australia, South Africa, Poland and France.
Without this amazing work, during which I learned as much as I taught (and still do) I would have been so stuck in my riding; my 'ceiling' decided by others, and typecast as 'someone who came to riding too late to really get it'.
Because of my mentors, my horses, my curiosity, and my constant quest to unpack things that don't make sense, I learned many many 'Secrets'
And now I get to share them with you!
Come along for a lesson if you want to uncover your own talent, budge your 'stuck places', or take a fresh view of learning our favourite skill.
All welcome!
Let me know your thoughts - or hit me with your questions!